A participant in one of the Play It Strange songwriting competitions, which are run nationwide across NZ, brings to the plate a unique construction. There is nothing like it. It’s called a song.
It is an invisible aural artwork - where abstract musical adventure (the weaving together of melody & rhythm ) is assembled in parallel with a particular language. Play It Strange has savoured many languages, as the storytelling behind those songs shows the bedrock of entered songs - such as?
Samoa. Fiji
English. French
Tokelau. Mandarin
Farsi. Indian. Spanish
Dutch. Hindu and onwards, as our door is always open.
And then when the creative task is deemed complete by the student and the song is posted to us as an electronic file to the Auckland Play It Strange office, the wheels start to turn. Does the song have the spirit and colour it is capable of potentially? Are the dynamics & emotional engagement that bring the REAL TRUTH of the song brought to the fore? - How vibrant are the crucial elements of that particular song’s quality?
That standard should be realised.
And then?
If the song is selected by the judging panel, those qualities need to be tangible in the outcome of the recording of the song as cut in whichever studio it is recorded in. And that step requires careful, special and technical input.
All to the requisites of the song’s arrangement involving the precise performance and creative assembly of parts. It is a wonderful passage of time, and if you were to dive into the literally hundreds of finished, online finalist Play It Strange recordings, you would certainly agree with me. And it’s not necessarily a lone slog you will have in front of you. Many Play It Strange finalists’ recordings have minimalist arrangements, thus ensuring the track is a clear cut expose and it brings the detail of the finalist’s song to the fore. Hook into Spotify and check out these past tracks of a number of recordings from our past.
Finalist Examples:
Niamh Crooks. ‘I Still Love You
Rachel Stevens. ‘It’s All You’
Caleb Wright. ‘I Fall In Love Again’
The act of passing a song you have written out into the world is real: there it is aloft so that it can be heard by anyone. It is an exciting realisation. But it will be in the careful bringing together of humility and fortitude that the success of that enactment will be realised. You wrote a song. You now stand beside it:…. You stand behind it as it stands astride all the responses waiting for it. Be brave ….. be strong.
Stand tall.
Every song you write and enter in one of our competitions ( if successful) will be recorded and made available worldwide. Be ready to engage with that. Engage with the publicity and support it. It’s your special creation.
Don’t forget that.